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Of course The Fed is a generator of inequality, but if taxes were set properly, it could be counterbalanced. We can see this in European countries with much low
by jquery 4y ago
Of course The Fed is a generator of inequality, but if taxes were set properly, it could be counterbalanced. We can see this in European countries with much lower rates of inequality because of high taxes on excessive wealth and income. They also have central banks printing money at insanely low interest rates (or even negative rates)… until recently… perhaps they have raised their rates in tandem with the US.
- alchemist1e9 4y agoThere was an analysis which showed that lower european inequality vs the US is attributable to immigration at both the bottom end and the top end. No European nation has even remotely similar levels of poor and rich immigrants. The analysis showed if you exclude those populations the US inequality is lower. I can’t find the paper done on US data but this is one discussing similar idea: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/news/17-09-20-importing_inequality_immigration_and_the_top_1/ https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cag...
- jquery 4y agoBut we can’t exclude those populations. They’re here regardless of whether they’re convenient for our Gini coefficient, and the immense inequality is leading to structural problems with our society. We spend a lot more on health care for much worse overall results, for example. Anyway I’m under no illusion that inequality can be fixed with tax policies alone… but let’s at least try to do better. What Trump got away with shouldn’t be possible. It’s not like he was a sneaky mastermind, he was vulgar and brazen and open about it. God only knows what actual clever wealthy people are getting away with. Maybe for a start, we don’t change any tax policy. Instead, we make all tax returns public, or at least any returns involving seven figures or more. Watch the roaches scatter in the sunlight.